The present invention concerns a refuse disposal container for receiving waste, and a method of disposing of waste. The invention also relates to an attachment cover assembly to be attached to a conventional drum of standard size, a transport cart for handling such a drum, a filling device and an explosion protection device to be used with such a drum.
One of the problems involved in waste disposal is the wide range of different materials that have to be disposed of, with different materials requiring to be treated and processed in different ways to dispose of them. That means that there is a need for waste materials to be safisfactorily sorted into their different categories in order to provide for effective disposal thereof.
For example, for the disposal of old or waste oil, containers which are referred to as waste oil collecting containers have been developed, which can be respectively connected to a suction device for sucking away the waste oil which is dumped in such containers. The waste oils involved include oils which are suitable for reprocessing, for example engine oils, transmission oils, turbine oils, machine oils and hydraulic oils, or there are waste oils which can only be used for energy purposes, for example metal machining oils, mineral-based insulating oils and the like, or yet again severely contaminated waste oils which can only be disposed of by special disposal procedures, for example emulsions, oil-water mixtures, solvents, waste oils contaminated with for example chlorine or PCB, oil filters and other oil-bearing materials and items of equipment. It will be appreciated that the suitability of waste oils for processing thereof also depends on the oils being supplied to the processing installation in properly sorted form. There is therefore a need for waste oils to be sorted and put into the correct container for receiving same, at the point of accrual. Similar requirements also arise in relation to cans, jars, packages and the like consisting of metal, plastic material, glass and so forth, as well as in the chemical field.
When sorting wastes, there is not always space available in rooms for putting up the containers, therefore the need arises to prepare the containers to be set up outdoors.
Sorted waste must be transported. Workshops and filling stations do not dispose of extended transporting facilities, therefore a simple and economic means is needed to transport containers (empty or filled with waste) so that the waste disposal system lends itself for broad use.
Wastes use to occur from time to time, therefore when collected in containers, such containers are mostly half empty. In the case of inflammable fluids damps may develop which bear the danger of explosion. Therefore it is necessary to protect the containers against explosion.